Glitches at polling places and allegations of voter fraud vied for headlines with the political results on Election Day 2006 as media watchdogs kept tabs on snafus across the country.

In Denver, a denied request for extended voting hours dominated the coverage for hours.

During evening rush hour, KMGH-Channel 7 offered a stunning aerial shot of the long, snaking line to vote at Denver Botanic Gardens that said it all.

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper took to the airwaves to pronounce the whole mess “an outrage.”

Broadcasters held to their vows of caution in the wake of the debacle of 2004, when they mistakenly called races based on inaccurate exit polling. This time, exit-poll information was strictly embargoed.

The modern, supposedly high-tech computerized voting means the projections will be “more accurate but delayed a while,” Fox’s Brit Hume said, hunkering down for a long night.

In terms of content, the NBC News team was super – Tim Russert’s enthusiasm was contagious as usual – but the set was blindingly bad, a blaze of fluorescent stripes. Visually the most refreshing was CNN’s expansive set that allowed Anderson Cooper to stroll to the pundit desk in the midst of the beehive of a newsroom.

“This is an election about credibility and accountability,” NBC veteran Tom Brokaw announced.

Katie Couric called Schieffer “the dean” of CBS election coverage and, indeed, he lent her a bit of the credibility the American public supposedly craves. Couric let her colleagues do the heavy lifting.

Around the dial, the mantra was “All politics are local, except in wartime.”

The blogosphere was in overdrive for the 2006 midterms, unconstrained by the rules governing radio or television. Media outlets steered viewers to Internet sites – CNN, in particular, featured a “blog party” at an Internet cafe full of opinionated political bloggers. The risk of embargoed information seeping out early from the journalistically looser bloggers was apparent. On the left-leaning Daily Kos, for instance, “the Election Day Live Blogging Mothership” called New Jersey for Bob Menendez well before CNN did.

The networks made a show of transparency on their websites, engaging viewers in polls and discussions, using anchors to answer questions and, in the case of CBS, showcasing in streaming video the person deserving hisses if things go wrong: Kathy Frankovic, CBS News, director of surveys, explained how calls are made and noted she’s “the one to blame.”

Among the annoying puffery: CNN continuously advertised its “best political team on TV.” Fox touted a John Madden-esque “tellustrator” to highlight the Senate power plays. Be quiet and report the news.

In Washington, there may be no more loathed profession than that of the lobbyist. The political thriller “Miss Sloane” paints a cynical behind-the-scenes picture of the great lengths to which paid advocates will go to advance a cause.

The Denver Art Museum plans to funnel a $25 million one-time gift into the estimated $150 million budget for renovating its iconic North Building in time for the structure’s 50th anniversary in 2021, officials announced Thursday.